Re: Global dimming masking greenhouse effect

From: habshi (habshi_at_anony.net)
Date: 01/25/05 

Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 17:20:20 GMT

        Note it said the physical processes which cause fossilization. If you are not interested in
my threads just put an ignore sign on them . Sometimes the subject does veer off the topic a bit ,
but I am trying to keep down the number of threads so as not to cause annoyance.
Another item of interest in the book is that the body is composed of ten quadrillion microscopic
cells but we carry 100 quadrillion bugs on it !! ie we are more bacteria than human .ie
100,000,000,000,000,000 !
             There are copepods in the ocean which are so numerous that they turn the ocean black
for miles but only a single fossil except one in an ancient fish stomach has ever been found !
These bugs should be able to use the oxygen and get rid of excess co2 BUT the ocean lacks iron and
so we need to add , maybe through slow diffusing bags.
        Last time somebody tried it , the ocean became like a thick soup . We could multiply the
fish take many fold by adding iron regularly to our oceans and use the greenhouse effect to our
good.

..
Search for life signal on Titan

Titan: An atmosphere not unlike Earth's billions of years ago

Enlarge Image
 
Scientists will comb data sent back from Titan by the Huygens probe for the chemical signature of
life in a bid to identify the moon's source of methane.
Methane is constantly destroyed by UV light so there must be a source within Titan to replenish the
atmosphere.

Life is a possible - though some think unlikely - source of this hydrocarbon along with geological
processes.

The surface is too cold for biology, but microbes could survive in an ocean within Titan, a senior
scientist says.

Methane can also be released from a trapped form called clathrate and produced by a geological
process called "serpentinisation". Neither of these involve biology.

Dominated by nitrogen, methane and other organic (carbon-based) molecules, Titan is thought to
resemble a deep-frozen version of Earth 4.6 billion years ago.

Liquid methane rains down on Titan into river channels carved between hills of water ice. Reservoirs
of this hydrocarbon probably lie on or just below the surface.

But UV light would destroy all the methane on Titan within 10 million years if it were not being
constantly renewed.

  We have liquid water, organics not so far away; we have everything on Titan to make life

Francois Raulin, University of Paris

"We cannot say there is absolutely no chance for life," Dr Francois Raulin, one of three
interdisciplinary scientists on the Huygens mission told the BBC News website.

"There is no chance for life on the surface because it is too cold and there is no liquid water.

"However, models of Titan's interior show there should be an ocean about 100km deep at around 300km
below the surface."

If the models are correct, this ocean would be composed mostly of liquid water with about 15%
ammonia at a temperature of about -80C, said Dr Raulin.

"We have liquid water, organics not so far away; we have everything on Titan to make life," he
explained.

Work in progress

If methane-producing microbes had colonised this habitable zone, scientists might detect its
chemical signature by looking at the relationship of two forms (or isotopes) of the element carbon -
C12 and C13.

Living cells preferentially incorporate C12. So compounds produced by living things should be
depleted of "heavier" isotopes such as C13; they are said to have a high C12/C13 ratio.

 
Some process is renewing Titan's supply of methane

Scientists should be able to measure this ratio in data sent back by the Gas Chromatograph Mass
Spectrometer (GCMS) instrument on Huygens.

"The GCMS can directly detect the C12/C13 carbon ratio. We haven't done that yet, but we're working
on it," said Sushil Atreya, a professor of planetary science at the University of Michigan, US, and
a GCMS team member.

"It's one factor we can take into account to figure out how methane is getting replenished."

However, Professor Atreya favours the geological process of serpentinisation as a more likely source
of the Saturnian moon's methane.

In serpentinisation, geothermal activity generates methane through the oxidation of metals such as
iron, chromium and magnesium which could be contained in crustal rocks below Titan's surface.

Another possibility is that methane molecules are trapped in a water-ice matrix called clathrate (or
methane hydrate).

Dr Raulin also considers these geological processes as viable sources of methane on Titan.

On 14 January, the spacecraft plunged through the moon's atmosphere, sending scientific data -
including stunning images - back to ground controllers.

It landed on Titan at around 1138 GMT at a leisurely speed of around 5m/s and transmitted a signal
until at least 1555 GMT.
 

Relevant Pages

  • Article: A whiff of life on the Red Planet
    ... A whiff of life on the Red Planet ... Mars Express and the organiser of the conference in Noordwijk, ... Scientists are understandably cautious. ... independently detected methane on Mars - a gas that bacteria ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Fossil fuel theory takes hit with NASA finding
    ... New study shows methane on Saturn's moon Titan not biological ... NASA scientists are about to publish conclusive studies showing abundant methane ... only from a source that biology had taken from another carbon-bearing gas? ...
    (sci.geo.geology)
  • Re: Global dimming masking greenhouse effect
    ... Search for life signal on Titan ... Methane is constantly destroyed by UV light so there must be a source within Titan to replenish the ... interdisciplinary scientists on the Huygens mission told the BBC News website. ...
    (sci.physics)
  • NASA Reports That Methane Drizzles on Saturns Moon, Titan
    ... NASA REPORTS THAT METHANE DRIZZLES ON SATURN'S MOON, ... Liquid methane drizzles on the surface of Titan, a moon of Saturn, ...
    (sci.space.news)
  • Cassini Spies Methane Lakes on Titan
    ... Cassini Spies Methane Lakes on Titan ... Team members poring over data returned last Friday by the Cassini ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)